06-14-2004 CC MIN - Laserfiche WebLink

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City Council M. inutes Page 4 June 14, 2004 · Move forward with the establishment and filling of the community development director position (option A) or the public services director position (option B) and; incorporate funds into the 2005 budget for one of these positions. Mayor Klinzing likes the structure of the City of Blaine but felt it is better for the administrator to be removed from the actual hiring and firing of staff. She felt Safety Service including Code Enforcement was interesting. Councilmember Dietz asked if the city currently is paying more than $8,000 per month, over and above developer driven projects, for Terry Maurer's services. Mr. Maurer answered that last year he billed a little over 1000 hours to Elk River. It was felt that it would be more cost effective if he were on staff because the city would get double the hours for a fiat rate rather than a dollar per hour rate. Howard Green gains by keeping the city as a major client. Mr. Dietz felt that adding a whole engineering department would be expensive because it would be adding more than one person. Council_member Dietz had concerns in hiring the additional positions of assistant city administrator and community development director and if there would be sufficient work for them. Nh:. Fdaers stated that we could have an internal person doing a dual function such as an engineer and a public works director. These positions would better coordinate the activities of the individual departments and their assignments. The community development director may restructure the department and assume some of the responsibilities that economic development or planning currently have. The community development director is one of the positions that came up the strongest in the goal setting sessions with the council. More communication among boards, commissions, and staff is needed and a community development director can help in this regard. In the role of assistant city administrator, this person would be given some of the work that the administrator currently does and that he can't delegate to others because their work load is also full. The assistant position would help in areas when there are vacancies and would offer a great deal of flexibility as the city organization structure evolves. In the future, perhaps this position would supervise human resources or the prosecuting attorney. Councilmember Dietz asked why Mr. Klaers would want the city clerk and prosecuting attorney under his supervision. Mr. Kdaers stated that he wants the position tied to the consulting attorney as we are trying to move some work away from Attorney Beck and also to keep it independent from the other department heads. The city clerk's position is ded closely with the city administrator's roles, such as working closely with packets, agendas, etc. and she supervises the support staff. He also would lose his clerical support help. Council Tveite expressed the following: · To have Terry Maurer on retainer; but not having an engineering department; afraid would need to dissolve in 10 years; · Community development director is a necessary position because of the communication required among those departments and in servicing all customers; to be given a high priority; · Establish director of administrative services and ~ve have a talented person on staff to fill that role; · Assistant city administrator--he felt this position was going to be a function of the director of administrative services position; seems more like a luxury at this time and may be needed in the future.